Photos: Reformed skinhead removes tattoos

Bryon Widner, left, and his family pray before their dinner at their home, Aug. 1. For 16 years, Widner was a glowering, swaggering, menacing vessel of savagery - an "enforcer" for some of America’s most notorious and violent racist skinhead groups. After getting married in 2006 to Julie Larsen, the couple, former pillars of the white power movement (she as a member of the National Alliance, he a founder of the Vinlanders gang of skinheads) had worked hard to put their racist past behind them. They had settled down and had a baby; her younger children had embraced him as a father.
(Jae C. Hong / AP)
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Bryon Widner holds a photo at his home of him and his wife Julie taken before his facial tattoos were removed. Though his beliefs had changed, leaving the old life would not be easy when it was all he had known - and when his face remained a billboard of hate. He was shunned on job sites, stores and restaurants.
(Jae C. Hong / AP)
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This combination of eight photos shows the progress of tattoo removal treatments for Bryon Widner. He underwent 25 painful surgeries over the course of 16 months, on his face, neck and hands.
(Duke Tribble / AP)
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Bryon and Julie Widner are applauded in Pasadena, Calif., after the screening of "Erasing Hate," a documentary film featuring their family.
(Jae C. Hong / AP)
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Bryon Widner hugs his 4-year-old son, Tyrson, at their home. Widner and his family are rebuilding their lives in an undisclosed location.
(Jae C. Hong / AP)
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Bryon Widner at his home following his tattto removal surgeries. He suffers migraines and other ills as a result of the extensive and painful surgeries to remove racist tattoos. But, he says, "it's a small price to pay for being human again."
(Jae C. Hong / AP)
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Editor's note:
This image contains graphic content that some viewers may find disturbing.